A Decade of Change in Sixth Amendment Confrontation Doctrine

Abstract

The United States Supreme Court brought new prominence to Sixth Amendment confrontation doctrine in 2004 when it announced its testimonial interpretation in Crawford v. Washington. This essay describes how confrontation doctrine was changed in the last decade by Crawford and the Court's subsequent decisions in Davis v. Washington and Giles v. California. It examines what the disagreements among the five opinions in Giles suggest about whether the Court will continue to rely so strongly on historical hearsay doctrine to interpret the Confrontation Clause. It discusses other confrontation issues the Supreme Court will face in future cases.